News from the Plains: All this RED can make you BLUE
The end of the ambivalent alternative
by Barry Friedman
As much as I would like to think there's a connection between this ...
It's hard for the community to be concerned about the number of homicides when it's gang members killing gang members. When you think about it, who's really complaining about that?
and
this ...
The Urban Tulsa Weekly, the largest weekly alternative newspaper distributed in the Tulsa area, has shut down effective immediately
God is not that good.
On August 22, Community Publishers filed suit against Renegade Publishing Inc., the publishing company of Urban Tulsa Weekly, in Tulsa County district court alleging Renegade had not paid the company $94,675.48 for its printing services.
The court ruled in favor of Community Publishers on Sept. 24 and ordered Renegade to pay the full amount.
As part of the lawsuit, Keith Skrzypczak was ordered to appear at the Tulsa County Courthouse on Nov. 21 to provide details on Renegade Publishing’s financial information, including salary records, bank statements, income tax returns, real estate, vehicle titles, a full list of property and more.
I think the legal term for that kind of defeat is ...
Bam!
As mentioned in these parts before, I wrote for UTW from about 2003-06, so I'm a tad nostalgic.
But just a tad.
It's where, if you will, I found my inner snark, writing a weekly column, as well as stories on large Indian statues and lonely guys in toll booths (Skrzypczak will tell you I left because I was thin-skinned; I'll tell you I left because he was megalomanic. Let's call the whole thing off). The paper always had, until it closed, the best events pages in town, some solid writers and a nice, gritty feel to it, but you allow bigots like Simonson to write a column, you hire known plagiarists, and defiantly stiff a small regional publisher, nobody's running down to Hobby Lobby to get a frame for your last issue.
One writer said UTW's problems were hematologic.
"The other was the insularity of management. Husband as publisher, wife as operations manager, and they didn't seem to let anyone else into their decision-making process, to look over their shoulders, to compensate for their blind spots."
Oh, and blind spots there were--like this jaw-dislocating regular
feature called
Ask a Mexican
Dear Mexican:
Why did all the conquerors come from Europe? And why were Africans conquered as slaves, instead of Latinos? Are we more rebellious, and not easy to control?
--Latina Grrl
Dear Wabette: Latinos not slaves? Look at Mexican Catholics.
Alto. You're killing me.
UTW was more conservative than The Tulsa World--and this was before TW started worrying about the feelings of the uber right. Yet, even though UTW had a conservative editorial slant, it had a scratch and sniff advertising policy. Pat Kroblin, former Planned Parenthood marketing director in Tulsa, told me that when she was with the organization, Skrzypczak wouldn't accept its ads, due to his faith, something she would have understood if not for the half-page spreads he would permit of dark-haired girls in Lone Ranger masks and halter tops.
"It was sad. He'd allow advertising that would tell you where to have the illicit sex, but prohibited ads that could tell you how to protect yourself once you got there."
¿Qué pasa con eso?
UTW's Ladies Drink Free/Pro-Life stance was its DNA--stubborn, faith-based bipolarity.
Wading through each issue was like being promised a blow job with every fetus saved.